College Football BlogPoll, Week 12: Oklahoma State Gaining On LSU

LSU may be a consensus No. 1 across the college football rankings, but the Tigers aren't a unanimous No. 1 in the BlogPoll. After losing two first-place votes to Oklahoma State and Stanford in Week 11, LSU isn't in the top spot in three ballots in Week 12. All of those voters enthroned Oklahoma State, a consensus No. 2, and Alabama, Oregon, and Oklahoma round out the top five.

Stanford falls from No. 3 to No. 8 after its first loss of the season, while Boise State falls from No. 5 to No. 11 — behind undefeated Houston — after being upset by TCU. And Penn State drops a whopping 10 spots in the first BlogPoll since Joe Paterno's firing; it's up to the reader to judge whether voters are penalizing the Nittany Lions' skimpy resume or punishing Penn State for malfeasance off the field.

Results for Week 12

#	School	Points/blog	SD	Delta
1	LSU Tigers (74)	24.96	0.19	--
2	Oklahoma St. Cowboys (3)	23.92	0.42	--
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	22.68	0.87	1
4	Oregon Ducks	21.86	2.61	2
5	Oklahoma Sooners	20.25	2.62	2
6	Arkansas Razorbacks	19.71	2.17	2
7	Clemson Tigers	17.99	1.91	2
8	Stanford Cardinal	17.90	1.76	-5
9	Virginia Tech Hokies	16.40	2.00	1
10	Houston Cougars	15.05	3.67	1
11	Boise St. Broncos	14.55	3.45	-6
12	Georgia Bulldogs	12.77	2.53	2
13	Michigan St. Spartans	12.60	2.62	--
14	Wisconsin Badgers	11.48	2.94	1
15	South Carolina Gamecocks	10.97	3.37	1
16	Nebraska Cornhuskers	10.42	2.21	1
17	Kansas St. Wildcats	9.35	3.47	1
18	USC Trojans	7.57	4.64	1
19	Michigan Wolverines	6.82	2.80	5
20	TCU Horned Frogs	6.12	3.38	6
21	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	5.57	3.34	2
22	Penn St. Nittany Lions	4.99	2.69	-10
23	Florida St. Seminoles	2.73	2.58	5
24	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	1.95	2.47	6
25	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	1.73	2.49	-5
Others Receiving Votes: Baylor Bears | West Virginia Mountaineers | Cincinnati Bearcats | Texas Longhorns | Virginia Cavaliers | Arkansas St. Red Wolves | Oregon St. Beavers | Arizona St. Sun Devils | Auburn Tigers | Tulsa Golden Hurricane | Texas A&M Aggies | Missouri Tigers | Rutgers Scarlet Knights | Washington Huskies | UAB Blazers | Toledo Rockets
Updated: Nov 15, 2011 10:01 AM EST

Total Ballots: 77

Explore votes by team | Explore poll ballots by voter "

Wack Ballot Watchdog

So Roll Bama Roll gave a Mr. Irrelevant vote to UAB, which has scored 173 points in 10 games and is 2-8. Why? Because the Blazers beat Memphis.

The three voters with Oklahoma State No. 1, for the record: Subway Domer, Husker Mike's Blasphemy, and Men of the Scarlet and Grey.

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the teams which spur the most and least disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation. Note that the standard deviation charts halt at No. 25 when looking for the lowest, otherwise teams that everyone agreed were terrible (say, Tulane) would all be at the top.

I'm still not entirely convinced that every voter is aware that USC is eligible to be ranked, so here's a PSA: you may rank USC, BlogPoll voters. Earning a full standard deviation more variance than a Houston team that calls a four-point win over UCLA its best is rather impressive.

Ballot Math

First up are Mr. Bold and Mr. Numb Existence. The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Resume balloting with a twist that teams cannot outrank teams that beat them in the previous week from Frogs O' War carries the day once more: both Stanford and Boise State fall far in the TCU blog's ballot.

All 25 teams ranked in the Week 12 BlogPoll are in Garnet and Black Attack's ballot, and there isn't a team more than two rungs away from its consensus position, either. Eleven Warriors just misses on the 25th team, ranking consensus No. 26 Baylor instead of Georgia Tech.

Next we have the Coulter/Kos Award and the Straight Bangin' Award, which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your football team.

Again, resume balloting with a twist for Frogs O' War: Boise State being 15th means TCU must move up to no lower than 14th. (It's not nearly the Frogs' highest ranking; they have ninth- and 10th-place votes, too.) As for NittanyWhiteOut, well, having Penn State ahead of Georgia is somewhat suspect.

The Ciskie Blog has Wisconsin 17th, which is perfectly reasonable. It's just that no one's really all that down on their teams at this point in the season; a -0.09 rating here means that not ranking the No. 37 team is enough to get you into this category, which is less negative bias and more "I am aware of other football teams" bias.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

NittanyWhiteOut and Frogs O' War continue their Week 12 dominance here. And just imagine what might have happened if the former had moved Stanford more than four places down from No. 1! (I may have missed a Wack Ballot.)

BCS Guru kept a lot of teams steady, and elevated a slew of teams that had been behind Penn State one spot each.